SEO Mistakes That Could Be Impacting Your Patients

SEO Mistakes That Could Be Impacting Your Patients

Orthodontic practices — steer clear of these six mistakes if you want to develop a strong SEO strategy.

The rules of SEO are always changing, so it’s important to stay on top of trends. Here are six mistakes that orthodontic practices often make, and how you can learn from them to build effective digital campaigns.

1. Using poor planning

To make sure that your website shows up at the top of Google search results, it’s important to zero in on the right keywords. Don’t choose ones that are too popular, and therefore too competitive, but don’t settle for ones that aren’t being searched at all, either. You have to strike the balance between volume and achievability.

A good strategy is to focus on long tail keywords, such as “lung cancer treatment Salt Lake City.” The more specific your keywords are, the better chance your orthodontic practice has to receive a high search ranking.

2. Ignoring local search

Recent research shows that local search drives more clicks and calls than any other digital marketing channel. Patients are increasingly searching for convenient, personalized experiences, and medical marketers can take advantage of tools like Google My Business, local keywords, and voice search to appeal to their needs. As orthodontic practices are often highly localized, this strategy is likely to deliver a high ROI and sustainable success.

3. Not investing in social media

A study by Hootsuite shows that there is a strong correlation between social posting and search rankings. It’s important to post regularly — and include links to your website — in order to distribute your content and earn Google’s trust. Gaining popularity through social posting boosts your Google ranking and brings greater exposure to your practice.

4. Not following best practices

Some important best practices include posting regularly to your blog and social channels, updating content to keep it fresh, and monitoring comments to respond or remove spam. A website needs to have enough reputable, interesting content to rank highly on Google. You should post frequently and link to credible sources to boost trustworthiness. It’s also crucial to keep revamping content to stay on top of SEO and design trends.

5. Relying on disjointed marketing strategies

Orthodontic practices should maintain a clear, consistent message across digital channels to hold visitors’ interest and minimize confusion. You should also have an overarching goal that drives your marketing strategy, whether it’s for patients to sign up for a clinical trial or purchase a cutting-edge medical device.

Building a larger objective for each campaign — and ensuring that all branches of your organization are in sync — will help your orthodontic practice develop an effective SEO strategy.

6. Not auditing your content

Google’s algorithms change all the time, so it’s essential to keep updating your SEO strategy. If the keywords that brought in new patients last year are no longer delivering results, it’s time to change it up. Keep up-to-date with the latest SEO best practices and make adjustments to your content accordingly.

A successful SEO strategy relies on tracking several variables and testing out new methods to see what works. Orthodontic practices should be prepared to stay on top of changes and adjust accordingly.